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Essential Skills Awareness Campaign Concludes
(March 17, 2005) - The Essential Skills Awareness Campaign, carried
out in conjunction with Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC)
has now been concluded. The broad objectives of the Essential Skills Awareness
campaign were to:
- Inform a Canada-wide audience of employers, business associations,
sector councils, organized labour, and community-based trainers/educators
about the impact Essential Skills has on productivity and safety performance,
among other benefits, and about the available tools and resources such
as Essential Skills profiles; and
- Help college partners forge stronger working relationships with local
business and other community-based service providers on matters relating
to essential skills and their development.
Objectives were to be achieved by delivering information sessions across
Canada and through an e-mail campaign. Activities were to be coordinated
by the ACCC with support from Bow Valley College and local college hosts.
Participating Partners by Region
Western Canada (BC, AB, SK & MB)
Douglas College, Northern Alberta
Institute of Technology, Bow Valley College, Lethbridge Community College,
Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology; and Red River
College.
Ontario (Not funded through this project)
Quebec
John Abbott College and Cegep De Sorel-Tracy.
Maritimes & Atlantic
Canada (NS, NB, PE, and NF)
New Brunswick Community College, Holland College,
College of the North Atlantic, and Nova Scotia Community College
Canada's
North (YK, NT & NU)
Yukon College, Aurora College, and Nunavut Artic
College.
We are now able to provide HRSD with a clear strategy to increase awareness
of the importance of the nine essential skills in relation to workforce
productivity/safety and to continue to seek out opportunities to build
on the learning and the good work already done.
Conclusions
The objectives of the project were met:
- Over 600 people attended well-received
information sessions. Sessions were held in every region of the country
including the far north.
- Almost 60 percent of participants that responded
to a post-session survey indicated that they would adopt some form
of an Essential Skills approach as a direct result of the session they
attended.
- There
are now people in every region of the county that can assist local
business and others implement Essential Skills strategies, where before
such support was limited;
- College partners, even those with now previous experience
or exposure to Essential Skills, are excited about the success of
the project and the potential to become more involved.
- An estimated 5,000 people
received a broadcast e-mail about the benefits of adopting an Essential
Skills approach.
- New marketing materials were developed in both official
languages for use during and after the campaign.
- Important information
was collected that could help shape future marketing campaigns. There
is strong agreement that marketing efforts should include personnel
selling strategies, more detailed information around the practical application
of Essential Skills approaches and some form of give-away that entices
the employers to become involved.
- Early results indicate that business
has already responded to the information received as large employers
in the prairie region, Ontario and the Maritimes have purchased Essential
Skills related services from college partners.
- Although creating awareness
amongst government representatives wasn't a stated objective, over
100 people from provincial and federal government departments attended
sessions. This participation is viewed positively as it could spark additional
investments from other levels of government.
Recommendations
Based on the results of the project, it is recommended
that members of the newly establish Essential Skills partner network
continue to work individually and collectively to:
- Promote the importance
of essential skills locally, provincially and nationally;
- Strengthen the
relationship between college partners across the country so that
best practices can be readily shared for the benefit of all;
- Continue to seek
out opportunities to build on the learning and the good work already
done.
Next Steps
A proposal for further funding has been submitted to carry out
Phase 2. TOWES en français (Phase 2) - Building Capacity will
be implemented via two activity clusters:
- a research and development strand
- an awareness, communications and marketing
strand
For more information:
Michael Herzog
National Account Manager
Phone: (403) 410-3197
Email: mherzog@bowvalleycollege.ca
Page Updated: Tuesday, June 03, 2008